Emergency Preparedness

When large scale disasters hit an area, the infrastructure failure is particularly damaging to small businesses. Recent flooding in Louisiana points to a hard rule: when your business is cut off from clients, vendors and critical staff, the economic losses continue long after the cleanup is done.

The key to protecting your assets and becoming resilient in the face of a natural disaster, cyberattack, or random power outage is having a solid business continuity plan. The cost of developing a plan is low, compared to the long-term financial losses that could occur when you’re caught off guard by a crisis.

September is National Preparedness Month. When disaster strikes, it’s only natural to want to protect your family and loved ones. Before disaster strikes, it very important to safeguard your small business, particularly if it’s your main source of income.

When a crisis hits your small business, getting the right message out quickly can protect your brand and speed up the recovery process. Increasingly, organizations are relying on social media to get ahead of and dispel misinformation that can lead to a tarnished reputation, and even failure of the company.

Get tips on creating a crisis communications plan using social media during a free webinar on Feb. 16, co-hosted by Agility Recovery and the U.S. Small Business Administration. The discussion will include:

As a small business owner, you know that being forced to close your doors, even for a day, is a costly setback. Typically, it’s often the seemingly isolated incident, not the mega-disaster, that causes power outages and the interconnected fallout affecting your clients, employees, and your bottom line.

Between 2003 and 2012, roughly 679 power outages, each affecting at least 50,000 customers, occurred due to weather events, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The number of outages caused by severe weather is expected to rise as climate change increases the frequency and intensity of hurricanes, blizzards, floods and other extreme weather events.

A free national preparedness month webinar series!

Is your organization prepared to communicate quickly and effectively with each other when a crisis hits? Did you know that nearly 70 percent of all U.S. businesses will lose power at one point in the next 12 months? Do you have a plan in place to keep your operations running? How will you rebuild your business if your employees are unable to report to work after a major disaster?

Having a business continuity plan is essential to establishing a successful and resilient small business. The cost of creating a disaster preparedness plan is small compared to the financial losses that may occur if there’s no plan in place.

The bite of winter is fast approaching, with some areas already covered in frosty white. While many workers will be earning a living indoors, plenty of people in the United States will be working outside in the coming months, often in bitter cold. Employers should be aware of the dangers, and plan accordingly.

Here are four things every employer should know in the winter:

1. What do I need to know about shoveling snow?

Shoveling snow can be a strenuous activity, particularly because cold weather can be taxing on the body, and can create the potential for exhaustion, dehydration, back injuries, or heart attacks.

When a winter storm hits, it can significantly interrupt if not suspend your business operations. Winter storms can bring freezing rain, ice, snow, high winds, or a combination of these conditions. They can cause power outages that last for days, make roads and walkways very dangerous, and affect community services. Preparing ahead of time can help you manage the impact a winter storm has on your business and the safety of your employees.

Knowing what to do when a winter storm and other disasters hit is the message of America’s PrepareAthon!, a nationwide grassroots campaign for action to increase community preparedness and resilience through hazard-specific drills, group discussions, and exercises. The campaign offers easy-to-implement preparedness guides, checklists, and resources to help individuals, business owners, organizations and whole communities practice the simple, specific actions they can take to prepare for disasters.

Did you know that in the wake of a disaster, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) provides low-interest disaster loans to homeowners, renters, businesses of all sizes and private, nonprofit organizations? In the aftermath of hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, wildfires, tornadoes and other disasters, SBA is the primary source of money from the federal government for long-term recovery assistance.

Am I eligible?

SBA’s Disaster Loan Program is not exclusively for small businesses. These low-interest, long-term loans are available for damage to private property owned by individuals, families, businesses of all sizes and private nonprofits not fully covered by insurance.

While property owners usually have some insurance coverage, often it does not cover all losses or even the type of hazard that caused the damage. And that’s where a disaster loan comes into play.

What can I use the loan for?

There are actually a few different types of disaster loans available. SBA can provide up to $2 million in disaster assistance for businesses. This includes loans to cover physical damage and economic injury losses. Some applicants will qualify for both an economic injury loan and a physical disaster loan. Meanwhile, the dollar limit for the combined loans is $2 million.

There are steps you can take to safeguard your company and secure your physical assets.

Review Insurance Coverage: Inadequate insurance coverage can lead to major financial loss if your business is damaged, destroyed or simply interrupted for a period of time. Insurance policies vary, so check with your agent or provider about things such as physical losses, flood coverage and business interruption. Understand what your policy covers and what it does not. Ask about any deductibles, if applicable. Consider how you will pay creditors and employees. You should also plan how you will provide for your own income. Finally, find out what records your insurance provider will want to see after an emergency and store them in a safe place.

Prepare for Utility Disruptions: Businesses are often dependent on electricity, gas, telecommunications, sewer and other utilities. Plan ahead for extended disruptions during and after a disaster. Carefully examine which utilities are vital to your business’s day-to-day operation. Speak with service providers about potential alternatives and identify back-up options such as portable generators to power the vital aspects of your business in an emergency.